Note Malachi – Part 1 of 1
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Note Malachi – Part 1 of 1 Era Characters Chapters In the beginning God created the world. Genesis 1 Before 4000 BC Adam & Eve Gen 1~5 Before 3000 BC Cain Abel Seth Gen 4~5 Before 2500 BC Noah Gen 5~10 Before 2100 BC Job Elihu Job About 2000 BC Abraham Isaac & Ishmael Jacob & Esau Joseph Gen 11~50 Era of Patriarchs About 1500 BC~ 1000 BC Moses Aaron Joshua Exo Lev Num Deu Era of prophets Joshua Joshua Judges(Othniel Ehud Shamgar Deborah Gideon Tola Judges Jair Jephthah Ibzan Elon Abdon Samson) Abimelech Ruth Boaz Naomi Ruth Eli Samuel Saul David 1 Samuel About 1000 BC Saul Jonathan David Absalom Solomon 1 Samuel 2 Samuel Era of princes Solomon Jeroboam Rehoboam Ahab Elijah Elisha 1 kings Jehu Ahab Hezekiah Manasseh Josiah Elisha Jehu Elijah 2 kings Saul David Solomon 1 Chronicles Solomon Rehoboam Asa Jehoshaphat Jehoram Joash 2 Chronicles Hezekiah Josiah Zerubbabel Ezra Nehemiah Haggai Zechariah Ezra Nehemiah About 500 BC Esther Mordecai Haman Ahasuerus Esther Era of priests Isaiah Ahaz Hezekiah Isaiah Jeremiah Baruch Zedekiah Jeremiah Jeremiah Lamentation Ezekiel Ezekiel Daniel Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar Daniel Hosea Hosea Joel Joel Amos Amos Obadiah Obadiah Jonah Jonah Micah Micah Nahum Nahum Habakkuk Habakkuk Zephaniah Zephaniah Haggai Haggai Zechariah Zechariah Malachi Malachi Malachi – Part 1 of 1 Page 1 of 13 Summary Malachi - Part 1 of 1 ......................................................................................... 3 Malachi contains six lessons. 1) Does God love us? God demonstrated His love by preserving the Israelites, but not in the way they wanted. We must not focus on the things we lack and forget what God has done for us. 2) Do we despise God? The Israelites sacrificed the lame and blind animals to God and the priests allowed it. We must give our best to God, not our crumbs. Pastors today are expected to ensure this. 3) Are we treacherous? Israelite men broke their vows and divorced their wives. God expects us to keep our marriage vows. 4) Why does God allow evil people to prosper? God will judge in His time. 5) Do we tithe? Under the New Testament, we don’t just owe God 10%. Now, everything we own is God’s and we are commanded to give our whole lives to Him. We are to be willing givers. 6) Why serve God? Those who understand and love God will be recorded in the book of life. Our reward is in heaven, not on earth. God’s judgments are sure; His timing is different from ours. We must remember that He is God, respect him and give Him our best. Malachi – Part 1 of 1 Page 2 of 13 Transcript Malachi – Part 1 of 1 Today, we come to the book of Malachi, the very last book in our English Old Testament. I say English Old Testament because in the Hebrew Scriptures, Chronicles is the last book. Malachi was a contemporary of Haggai and Zechariah. These are the post exilic prophets - Haggai and Zechariah were used by God to motivate the Israelites to complete the building of the Temple to encourage more of them to go back to Jerusalem. Malachi was the last of these post exilic prophets. His job was not so much about completing the building but about their behavior in the building of the Temple. All these took place about 100 years after they returned from Babylon. It's a long time... 100 years. Now of course, when you read the Bible, we don't realize this. What was the situation during this time -Haggai, Zacharias, Malachi’s time. Basically, the Israelites were very discouraged, because they were so poor. They were great traders in Babylon, the financial trading capital of the world at that time. They left it to go back, dreaming of rebuilding the kingdom of God, David's glorious kingdom. But after 100 years, what was it like? It was just a little town on the hill. Nehemiah had completed the walls, a tiny temple was there, but it was nothing like Solomon's. There were so few people in the city, the walls have been rebuilt, but the people were not confident that there were enough people to defend the city if invaders came. So, the vast majority of the Israelites actually didn't live in the city of Jerusalem but in the villages around, knowing that invaders don't bother with villages. And it's easier to run and hide. So basically, it was just a little town with a few people in it, with the surrounding villages. It was not what they had anticipated. They knew God said He will rebuild David's kingdom, but they didn't figure out the time frame. We have very limited time frames and God works on a different timeframe. So we are very impatient with God. Malachi – Part 1 of 1 Page 3 of 13 For example, I live in a city and when I say I want something done fast, I mean I want it tomorrow, but to a person living in a village, fast means maybe, 'next year'. So, one of the things we must understand about God is, He is in no hurry because He lives in eternity and so will we. And we must always try to think of God's time frame because we will live with God in eternity. So, they were really discouraged. They didn't understand God, and most Christians today don't understand God. One big difference between the pre-exile and post-exile days was they did not have idols anymore. They were cured of idolatry. Pre-exile, before they went to Babylon, they were in love with idols. Post-exile, their heart was still the same sinful heart, but they feared idols. Basically what was their religion like? No idols. It was a temple and they went to worship in the temple. They would have what you and I would call today, traditional worship, just like many Christians today. I would say 90% of all Christians are traditional “Christians”, either born in Christian countries, Christian families, Christian communities. And so they worship God, but it is more a ritual than a reality. It's just something you do. This was the situation at this time. Their idea was very much like "Christians" today, nominal Christians, not born again. Their idea was, what's the minimum we can do so that we don't get punished by God? That's the attitude of most "Christians". Let's just do the minimum. Example, how short can my miniskirt be? God does not determine the length but do you think it pleases Him? And so that was their attitude. They were poor. They thought God didn't bless them. You see, their mind worked on human economics. As I had said earlier, God's economics is different. The reason they were poor was that they treated God badly. So God responded by treating them in like manner. If you don't bother with God, don't expect God to bless you! Salvation is eternal but our fellowship with God is based on our present obedience to God. As they didn't bother with God, God didn't bother with them, and so they got poor. And so they thought there was no point to serve God. They didn't understand that if they sought first the Kingdom of God, they wouldn't be in this condition. In human economics, God is not in the equation at all. They thought that if they work hard, they will get more, but it was not so. Malachi – Part 1 of 1 Page 4 of 13 Now, Malachi was the very last prophet. The name Malachi simply means messenger. Some people say there was no such person as Malachi. They believe it was Ezra writing under the name of 'messenger.' Now we don't know, but the style of Malachi is very interesting. It's not the typical prophetic style of 'Thus saith the Lord.' In the book of Malachi, an accusation is made, or a statement is made, usually by the prophet and then the people respond, and then God answers. These were the last words of God to His people. And then He kept quiet for 400 years. So what's the message? Why does your father keep quiet and not talk to you for a long time? Because he’s angry with you! But I know he's still there. And the Jews knew God was still there. This was never a question in their minds. But the question was, Why was He quiet for 400 years? He's fed up! He's fed up with them. And many times, Christians wonder why God never speaks to them. He could be fed up with you. Every time He wants to get your attention, you ignore Him, you question Him, like the Jews we're going see here. Let's look at the book. There are basically six accusations or statements, and then the response, and then the answer from God. 1st accusation or statement: Malachi 1:2-5 "I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say "how have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the Lord. Yet I've loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." The first statement God says, I love you, and the Jews' immediate response was, Huh, you love us? We’re so poor, are you sure you love us? It's like a father says to his son, I love you.